


Can I Ask You A Dumb Question?

by inchvormzz



Category: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois
Genre: Gen, alternate universe - android, juice tries to be a stoic little bitch, this turned out longer than i wanted lmao sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 18:09:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19873876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inchvormzz/pseuds/inchvormzz
Summary: Juice has a bad night and pushes himself to ask for a bit of help, even if it requires Ten bullying him a little.





	Can I Ask You A Dumb Question?

Knock, knock.

A heavy sigh, muffled by the white door, was heard before a feminine, monotone voice from behind it shouted, “Come in!”

The door slowly creaked open, revealing the taller android, walking in with his hands shoved in his pockets. His skin was dark and occasionally covered with lines, showing the borders of the metal plates he was made up of. His hair was spiky and blonde, and he wore a yellow and dark purple letterman jacket laid over a white tee. His eyebrows were furrowed together and his yellow eyes, defined with heavy eye bags, glared down at the floor.

“Oh, hey, Juice. I really wasn’t expecting you to be up this late.” The other android was a shorter, mixed girl, with curly brown hair brushing against her mint green glasses. She wore a big, green sweater, the collar pressed against her chin, and dark grey leggings. She laid against the backboard of her bed, which was neatly made, with a computer sat in her lap, looking very tired and frankly bored.

He forced a small smile and ambled over to her messy desk and fell into her black desk chair, shifting his legs so he could lean his arms onto his knees. “Well, who the fuck else would it be? Nancy hoppin’ by the house at 1 AM?”

She squinted at Juice, scrunching up her nose at him over her laptop. “Well, you know how Hubble is sometimes, he’s shown up here at 3 AM more times than you’d think. Alternatively, Nine could’ve had a shitty night or they wanted to watch one of the dumbass games you’ve shown them. By the way, I’d really appreciate if you stopped showing them those dumbass games.”

He laughed this time, loud and clear in the quiet night, shutting his eyes and leaning back in the chair. “Sure, Ten. Right after you admit Game 27 is fucking boss.”

The other android, Ten, suppressed a smile and started tapping again on the computer. “So, what do you want?” she asked, nodding to her screen, “I’m kind of in the middle of some work here.”

“Oh, yeah.” His smile faded and he suddenly looked very tired, grimacing at his hands in front of him. “Can I ask you a dumb question? Like a real, stupid ass question?”

She chuckled and sat her laptop down on her bed, turning to him with a wave of her hand. “Juice, I’ve been friends with you for thousands, if not millions, of years. I’ve practically become immune to your ‘stupid ass’ questions, nothing you say can get to me anymore.”

“Aight.” He fiddled with the hem of his jacket for a moment before locking eyes with Ten. “Can I just, like, lay here for a while? I’m not gonna go off but today has been kinda . . . shit.” 

Ten froze and looked over him, which he easily noticed and squirmed uncomfortably under her surprised stare. She really wasn’t expecting Juice to even think of asking something like that. It just wasn’t very . . . Juice-like of him. 

In the small house they shared together, he was the one who’d they go to just to sit in a comforting silence or to be cheered up. He’d sit there and occasionally make a dumb joke or turn on one of his many hand-selected, fucking stupid games, and eventually you’d be distracted from your problems. He didn’t question it and neither did they, it was just how things were.

Juice had never talked about his issues, if he’d even had any, just like any other strong feelings he’d have. He stopped doing that a good while after waking up, which Ten and Hubble had easily picked up on. They’d given up trying to get him to talk about it a while ago, too. 

And this wouldn’t be a trick or a prank, Ten knew that. He may be the biggest dumbass she’d ever encounter, even more of one than her sibling, but he knew his limits and how not to upset others over his jokes. He wouldn’t lie about something like this.

Whatever was going on with him must’ve really, truly have been shit. 

She wordlessly slid over, moving her laptop back onto her lap, and patted the gray pillow next to her. Juice slid out of the desk chair, leaving it to slowly spin for a moment, and shuffled over to her. 

He dropped down onto the bed, making Ten bounce up and down and almost losing hold of her computer. She scoffed and kicked at his hip. “I invite you into my goddamn bed to help and comfort you, and this is how you treat me?”

Juice snickered and began pushing himself into a sitting position, but he made sure to leave space between him and the other android, which she silently appreciated. 

He hovered over her shoulder and lazily pointed a finger towards her bright screen, “What are you doin’, anyway?” 

She had a document pulled up, lined with paragraphs of small text, and adding to it by the minute. Ten looked away and towards Juice with a proud smile. “It’s a research paper for the college course I’ve been taking. It’s about organic chemistry, which is the fascinating study of properties, reactions and all that shit on organic compounds. This paper’s due tomorrow, along with a few other assignments, so I’ve been kind of stressing over it.” She sighed and tapped a few more keys.

He rolled his eyes and sunk back against the bed’s backboard. “I have no idea why you bother to learn about that bullshit, you’re just ruining the fucking idea of leaving some things unknown for later on. If you learn it all today, then you ain’t going to have anything to distract you fucking hundreds of years ahead.” He nudged Ten with his elbow and muttered, “Besides, you sound like even more of a know-it-all.”

She whipped her head towards him, curls bouncing in response. “I am not a know-it-all, and there’s plenty of things to learn and study, so how about you shut it.”

He turned onto his side, back facing Ten, and waved her comment away. “Whatever. Nerds aren’t protected under the constitution, anyway.”

The older android didn’t reply and instead turned back to her important work, pushing his meaningless insults out of her mind. The jibes Juice and her would use against each other were common, but they never meant what they said. It had just been a running thing since they became friends.

Apparently, Ten realized as she peered at the corner of her screen, time spun by when you’re on a close deadline. The buzzing crickets outside the closed window became white noise in the background as she swept her fingers across the keyboard, clicking and tapping in an inconsistent rhythm. 

Once she lifted her hands away, kind of satisfied, the small, virtual clock had shifted to 1:34 A.M. Probably too late to continue writing now. Sleep schedules didn’t really matter to the androids anymore; hell, they didn’t even need to sleep that often unlike their human neighbors. The only time it really mattered was to pass time or to charge to full capacity again. 

But, in Juice’s case, sleep mattered when the calming hum of crickets, hopping outside in the dewy grass, barely lit up by the hanging moon, and the other android’s persistent and kind of annoying tapping drew you into deep unconsciousness, whether you wanted to sleep or not. 

Ten closed the top of the computer with a sigh and pulled her glasses off, rubbing at her sore eyes. She looked out the window for a silent moment, at the peaceful dark and the mechanical equivalent of the scent of a fresh, summer night. She turned back to ask Juice to leave, but he had his arm slung over his head and his side fell up and down, in an even rhythm. 

“Juice.” She shook him by the arm gently, but there was no response. 

She poked at his arm again, then aimed at his back. “Juice, you need to get up and go somewhere else. I’d like to go to sleep soon.” 

The only reply was the other android wrapping his arms tighter around his head and a muffled, “Mmphh.” 

Ten huffed angrily and swiftly kicked at Juice. Her foot bounced off his back instantly and a soft, victorious laugh came from the other side of the bed. For someone who was made the same way, Ten forgot a whole fucking lot that he was made of metal, which is usually hard to feel pain through.

She stood on her knees on the unstable mattress and towered over him. Her hands were placed on her hips and her eyebrows furrowed together in an angry glare. “Juice, get up or I will single-handedly use all my lasting strength AND Nine’s to shove you out the door, unconscious or not. I will personally wake up Nine just to get help in pushing your dumbass out of my bed.”

At this point, the other android’s furious speech had woken up Juice, only to have him roll over, hair ruffled into a blonde mess and bleary eyed, and mumble, “If you’re so tired just go fucking sleep on the couch.”

He turned back over into his original position, leaving Ten to gape at his back. She sat back and pinched her nose, muttering some kind of long insult.

“Whatever, forget it. I’m too tired for this.” She sighed, defeated, and set her closed glasses on the wooden nightstand, and pulled a thin blanket out from underneath Juice’s heavy legs. 

She folded it over herself, covering her body up to her nose, and reached out to yank the chain on the lamp with a click! The room quickly fell into a heavy silence and darkness, the only noises being the drone of the same crickets and Juice’s quiet breathing. 

Before she was pulled into a deep sleep like the neighborhood surrounding her, light pressure suddenly pushed against her back. A yellow letterman jacket sleeve, striped with dark purple, pressed against her, cold and satiny.

Juice’s arm reached over her side and patted her shoulder with the back of his hand, nearly hitting her square in the eye. “‘Night, tennis ball.” He sounded better this time, still sleepy but more content.

Ten smiled to the dark, reaching up and giving his hand a quick pat in return. “Goodnight, Juice.”

She closed her eyes again and listened to the other android sigh.

“Uhh. Ten?”

“Mm.”

There was another pause and the sound of Juice repositioning himself, and then he mumbled, “Thank you, for- y’know -this.”

She snickered and responded, without turning to face him, “That couldn’t have been more of an awkward thanks. Jesus Christ.”

“Oh, well, okay! Sorry, nevermind, I’ll just take that back and fuck you!”

“I was just teasing, you emotional calculator. It’s no problem, Juice. I’m glad I can help you like you’ve helped Nine and I, it means a lot to us when you do stuff like that.”

“Damn.” 

He fell silent again, quiet of any movement or words. When he began talking once more, his speech was rushed and nervous.

“It’s nothin’ big, I just like helping y’all, y’know? It’s seriously nothing to get all dumb and grateful over. Anyone would do it.”

Ten rubbed at her eyes before pressing her face into her pillow and mumbling, “Still. I’m happy I could help. Goodnight.”

“Mhmm, goodnight.”

Juice twisted to lay on his back, facing the ceiling with drooping eyelids. He took a deep breath, trying to rid himself of the bit of anxiety he had in his chest, and closed his eyes.

It’d all be okay in the morning. He would be okay. He’d be alright as long as his friends were here, here to help him.

Yeah, that sounds good. He’d be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> ya boy wrote this when i was sad so this is pretty much just me self-projectin on juice; also they ain’t a couple they’re just really dumb best friends


End file.
